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Lady Vikes tackle Joe City
Girls will take the week off for Homecoming

<br>Jackie Brown/GCN<br>
The Lady Vikings varsity squad will take the rest of this week off from volleyball in order to take part in this year’s Homecoming festivities.

<br>Jackie Brown/GCN<br> The Lady Vikings varsity squad will take the rest of this week off from volleyball in order to take part in this year’s Homecoming festivities.

The Lady Vikes played some tough games at the Joseph City Volleyball Tournament, held Sept. 26-27. On the first day of action the Ladies took on Ash Fork and Rock Point, the latter of which recently handed a loss to the Williams girls.

"The girls came back and they played magnificently," said Lady Vikes Coach Jaren Hudgens. "We played them two games and we beat them, so that was hugely uplifting for the girls. They were pumped."

The win put the Lady Vikings in the number one seed in their pool for the tournament. They went on to play Fredonia for the first round of the bracket tournament Sept. 27. The Fredonia team, Hudgens said, were missing a number of players in the recent game. After scoring a win against the Fredonia team, the girls went on to play Many Farms, taking the win there as well and placing the Ladies in the tournament championship against Joseph City.

"I just basically told the girls that they had to come out steaming for (Joe City)," Hudgens said. "The girls played their hearts out. They had really good serves and some really good passes. They got some balls that they should not have gotten anywhere near. The second game we lost 25-18, so we only lost by seven points, which is magnificent for these girls."

Lady Vikings Selena Verser and Ashley Bean were named All-Tournament players for the Joe City tournament.

"Selena played magnificently at the net and her serves were on. Ashley did awesome back row passing and hitting. I had three setters and all three of them stepped up throughout the entire tournament," Hudgens said. "They are Kiesha Reed, Dacota Walker and Darian Quasula. Darian also switched out to outside hitter and she hit right at them, just like I asked them to. The back row passing was a lot better. They were getting them to the setter and running for them. I count the tournament as a win for us, even though we got second place. It was a huge victory for us, because it showed we've made strides and you can see the big improvements in these girls. I'm very impressed with the way the girls played the whole weekend."

The Lady Vikes fought a tough rematch against Joe City Oct. 3, finally taking a loss against the scrappy Joe City team in three games of play.

"They are probably one of our biggest competitors in our conference. I was really impressed with the way the girls played," Hudgens said. "The progress that I saw in the girls, what we've been working on in practice, was amazing and if we keep progressing that way, we can beat them easily. The biggest highlight was Erin McNelly. I asked her to play front row middle blocker, which she hardly ever does, and she really stepped up. She got a couple really good blocks, she got a couple of really good hits, but most of all she made their hitters think again about where they were going to hit and how hard they were going to hit. She played a very big role. I'm very optimistic on the way that we're playing right now and the progress that we're making."

The girls also took on Northland Preparatory Academy for a league game Oct. 7, but will take off the rest of the week for Homecoming.

"We don't have a game for homecoming, which was kind of a bummer for the girls," Hudgens said.

The Lady Vikings currently stand at 14 wins and 5 losses for the season.

Junior Varsity

The Junior Varsity (JV) team will travel for a game in Laughlin tomorrow, while the varsity team will remain behind to take part in this week's homecoming festivities, Hudgens said.

"JV are playing awesome right now. They're playing probably the best that they've played all season. The freshmen have not had a game yet. The hard part is getting the freshmen to have games, because not a lot of teams in our conferences have enough for freshmen people. So that's the hard part. The nice thing is that our freshmen still get to dress out with the JV and they still get to practice with them and they still get that experience with the older kids," Hudgens said.


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